So it’s happened, you were so full of creative juices that it was overflowing and pouring out onto the floor, but what was given has now been taken away. Now that the last remaining drop of your creativity is gone, what do you do?

Earlier this week I asked myself the same question: that if my cup runneth over one day, why was it empty the next? Could it be just a fluke? No, because there’s so much left for me to talk about, think about, and do. And I knew it couldn’t be burn-out because I have just started. so I had to just keep telling myself “I am creative, but I just don’t feel like it right now.” Never mind that I thought that yesterday as well.

Lets Examine My Process —or Lack Thereof— to Get to the Real Truth.

Lately, I’ve been getting up at ridiculous hours in the morning. I’m talking at 3 am, folks! Then at that hour, I would write posts, insistent that inspiration was within me. I finished plenty of blog posts with that spark. Eventually each day, I would get more tired and less creative last Thursday I reached my natural stopping point. I was tired, running on empty, and DONE WITH IT. Exhaustion was sinking in but I had deadlines to get to. So what I needed to either smash through this brick wall (unlikely) or find a new way around it.

What Needs to Change?

The first thing I wanted to do was to take inventory of my problem. I would get creatively inspired at certain times in the day and then act upon it immediately. Not stopping to jot the ideas down and act upon them later when I was in better spirits; that needed to change. So first got some rest, then I got a Notion account to archive all of my ideas into one place.

How Can I Be Curious Today?

The second thing I’ve done to increase my creativity is to read more. I found a few good books that have subject matter that interest me and began to take notes on them, a couple I might even write about later. For me, ideas come from knowledge and curiosity.

How Can I Change My Thinking?

I remember back when I was in high school and junior college, we often did warm-up sketches and exercises to get our brains to function creatively. Some were as simple as using black paper and a white colored pencil to sketch and shade an image, Others were free-hand drawings. For those of you who don’t know free-hand drawing is a drawing where you don’t look at the page and draw as you see something–Yes, it’s harder than it sounds–but the point of these exercises is to connect your brain to a creative place by doing something you wouldn’t normally do. For me, that has been journaling. Yes, I chronicle my wins and I do gratitude journaling but I don’t just write to write, it’s intimidating. Writing about my day always seemed inconsequential and boring, but now I see that it makes me a better writer. And it’s not just because of the practice, but because of the paradigm shift.

After all that I can say with some certainty that I am back! just as creative as before maybe a little more. the urge I once had to write and create art is back! I also have plenty of fresh and toasty ideas for you that I just can’t wait to share!

These 3 questions have helped me reignite my creative spark. So what about you? Have you ever been in a creative slump? How did you get out of it? Feel free to comment down below.